Every election, we get diaries and comments that reflect long held memes about elections that have finally been disproven by the results of this last election. Let’s hope that nobody mindlessly repeats them in future elections. Some of the favorite canards:
High turnout helps Dems. Nope, we found that high turnout in Red states helps the GOP. If you have any doubts, see Florida 2016 and Florida 2018.
Late deciders break against the incumbent. There was no clear pattern of this in the 2018 — the polls taken a week before the election generally held up on Election Day.
Early voting! Despite all the hype, early voting is not predictive of the results.
Investigation! This is an old canard, news of some investigation of a GOP candidate just before the election, which will cause them to lose. Geez, one GOP candidate won after they had died, so what sort of investigation is going to give GOP voters pause?
Gender Gap. Although it is true that there is a gender gap in voting patterns, the big numbers of pro-Dem women voters are in Blue states, particularly New York and California. In places where it could matter like a Florida, Texas or Ohio, there isn’t much of a gender gap.